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Reading Notes: Jataka Part D

For this first Week 11 Reading, I'll be going over the fourth and final group of the Shedlock Jataka tales. These include The Crow that Thought It Knew, The Well-Trained Elephant, The Judas Tree, The River Fish and the Money, The Dreamer in the Wood, The Rice Measure, The Poisonous Trees, and The Wise Physician. 
This is a photo of a modern White Elephant, which is still used in royal Asian families as a symbol of power. 
The Crow that Thought It Knew is yet another of the stories that seems almost incomplete involving the Bhodisat - so many of them involved grand actions on his part but this story does not. In the rewritten stories, I think I'll keep a more grand tone when involving the Bhodisat. The Well-Trained Elephant had that more traditional grandeur associated with the lesson to be learned from the Bhodisat's incarnation. I like in this story and others that not only is the wicked character punished, but the power and virtue of the Bhodisat is given to benefit another more virtuous character.

I enjoyed that in the Judas Tree, the moral to be learned was not expressly stated - the reader is able to use their own reasoning to come to the intended conclusion, but we are still given a poem at the end to make the lesson more memorable. In The Dreamer in the Woods, the moral is made more clear although again not expressly stated. I didn't like this story as much because the reason for Sakka granting the Bhodisat his boons is not clear.

The moral of The Rice Measure was great - just because you lie to yourself or choose to surround yourself with things that suit you, reality does not change, and you have to face the consequences eventually. This story also held more cleverness than many of the others, which is more enjoyable to read. I like to read and write stories in which the attitudes and thoughts of the characters are more apparent, rather than ten being so passive.

Finally, in The Wise Physician, the Bhodisat was portrayed as a wise teacher, without being the hero or teaching through any specific action. This story made me wonder what the timeline of all of the Buddha's incarnations were. Did he begin as the animals who help others and teach lessons that way, and then gradually progress to being a kind human, to a heroic one, and so on, until he reached his final status?


 Citations:

  • The Crow that Thought It Knew: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Crow That Thought It Knew. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=crow
  • The Dreamer in the Wood: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Dreamer in the Wood. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=dreamer
  • The Judas Tree: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Judas Tree. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=judas
  • The Poisonous Trees: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Poisonous Trees. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=poisonous
  • The Rice Measure: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Rice Measure. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=rice
  • The River Fish and the Money: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The River Fish and the Money. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=river
  • The Well-Trained Elephant: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Well-Trained Elephant. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=trained
  • The Wise Physician: Shedlock, M. L. (n.d.). The Wise Physician. Retrieved April 1, 2019, from http://www.gatewaytotheclassics.com/browse/display.php?author=shedlock&book=eastern&story=physician


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